Unarmed Security Guard Requirements For Indiana

Providing unarmed security in the state of Indiana is big business, and getting bigger every day. Indiana University Medical Center employs over 30,000 staff, most of whom need to be kept in line at one time or another, and in fact 11 of the state’s top 20 employers are medical facilities or involved, in some way, in providing iatric care or conducting research.

That’s a lot of people with a lot of access to a lot of controlled drugs.

Usx Corporation Labor Relations in Gary has 25,000 staffers, Purdue University 15,000, I.U. at Bloomington and at Indianapolis have that many again between them, and innumerable corporations - Delphi Electronics, for instance, U.S. Steel and the U.S. Naval Weapons Support Center - have approaching 10,000 hires each.

Castleton Square, Glenbrook Square, Mall St. Matthews and River Falls - all within a few miles of downtown Indianapolis - comprise 4.1 million square feet of gross leasable space between them. That’s a lot of loss prevention.

Whether you work corporate or retail, a security guard’s range of responsibilities is vast, meaning the opportunities are also effectively unlimited.

The general public are accustomed to seeing private security in two primary roles; circulating through stores, largely to prevent patron and employee theft, and monitoring building and facility access (to offices, and to commercial and industrial premises).

In those familiar guises, the duties performed by a security guard wouldn't surprise the average abecedarian: suppressing disorder, investigating disturbances, answering alarms and monitoring surveillance systems are about all most days involve. What Joe Public probably doesn’t know, though, is how splendidly lax the Hoosier State is in its licensing requirements, where hiring on at a security company is concerned.

In short, no license is required.

If so instructed - by the state, or local law enforcement, the tax man or an insurer, for instance - a hiring company can be compelled only to provide photo ID and matching fingerprints of any unlicensed, unarmed security guard. Beyond that, any bunch of buddies who got together at Pendleton or Plainfield or Putnamville could all offer their services as security, which probably explains most of the door teams working down on East Pendleton Pike.

Things are different if a security guard intends to legally carry a firearm. Ordinances on ordnance alter county-by-county, but in general each applicant must be over 21, provably a U.S. citizen or registered resident alien (meaning legally in the country), and have neither a felony conviction nor any sort of record involving illegal weapons. They must submit to a drug test, an FBI fingerprint-based background check, and have earned a high school diploma or GED. All that assured, there’s also a state Department of Public Safety training course to complete.

It's massively more lucrative, of course, to operate your own organization.

But, starting an Indiana aegis agency is an entirely different kettle of cod, and immediately its alphabet soup time. Under the auspices of the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency (IPLA), the Indiana Private Investigator and Security Guard Licensing Board (IPISGLB) mandates, and enforces, all the statutes and administrative rules of the Indiana Code specific to the legitimate, licensed security guard profession.

As you would expect of a monolithic bureaucracy, the application process affecting agency set-up involves a fair number of hoops to jump through.

The IPISGLB publishes application packets on its .gov website. Applicants intending to establish a security guard agency should download State Application Form 53326, Security Guard Agency Application, a four-page opus including a Verification of Experience Form. The trick with these documents is to answer all their questions. If you encounter any inquiry which doesn’t apply personally, write “N/A” or “none;” leaving a blank will hamper the processing of your application.

Per Indiana Code 874 IAC 1-2-1, you’ll need to be able to demonstrate you’re at least twenty-one years of age, and have two or more years' experience working in the field within which you’re applying for a license (investigations or security), which equates to 4,000 hours, and be able to prove it.

The aforementioned Verification of Experience Form must be completed by a former or present employer - your experience cannot be own recognizance; you can’t verify yourself. Alternately, you can supply transcripts of a four-year Criminal Justice degree, awarded by a regionally accredited institution, which means not a shopping mall store-front “university” you saw extolled during ad breaks in Jerry Springer.

Of course, there are criminal background checks. Be assured that the information you give here will be audited and confirmed. Every local jurisdiction - city, county, and state - in which you’re resided during the previous seven years must be itemized, and accompanied by a fingerprint-based criminal background check conducted by the Indiana State Police.

Aside from those biggies, you’ll need to prove Limited Liability insurance (minimum of $100,000), and show that the State of Indiana is named as an additional insured. If any academic transcripts are applicable, or relevant military experience has been cited, proof must be attached. A passport-quality photograph, a checkable Social Security number are standard, and different situations may mandate a slew of other, optional administrative agitprop. Everyone must stump up a $300 application fee.

Your petition will be assigned a case manager, who reviews it for inaccuracies, and sends it back if anything’s errant or absent. If everything’s above-board, he or she prepares your packet for review by the IPISGLB, which meets six times annually; January 9th, March 13th, May 8th, July 10th, September 11th and November 13th. If any date falls on a weekend, check their .gov website for its alternate.

The Board makes its decision, your case manager contacts you with the result, and if your application’s been approved you win an issuance letter and license number. Your shiny new charter will bite the dust on October 1 every fourth year, the quadrennial renewal cycle being 2015, 2019, 2023 and onward. A further $300 is required at each origination date.

The license does not authorize you to carry a handgun, or to arrest any individual. Further, the Board has the ability to demand you change the name of your business, if it sees fit, even when you’ve subscribed to every applicable application edict. Thus, don’t go for a DBA (doing business as) registration along the lines of Bastards of the Bloody Knuckle - Bouncers & Bagmen, or anything similar.

You might also be identified as Approved Pending (which indicates one or more specific requirements have yet to be subscribed to), Tabled (which typically means the Board will require your personal attendance at its next meeting), or Denied (which is pretty self-explanatory).

By passing the application process, the license granted by the State of Indiana covers your business, based on your qualifications.

Your security guards are not automatically licensed in any way, but do not need to be, which brings us neatly back to the beginning of this article. The agency owner becomes civilly responsible for every employee’s good professional conduct while acting on his or her behalf, so if - for instance - you’re putting together a team that may be called upon to use force in any situation at all, ethics are important.

Of course, the likelihood is that your agency will also be monitoring videotaped evidence of any altercation, so, once more... ethics are important.